Stars live and die over the course of millions to billions
of years. It is unusual to see changes in individual stars.
To learn more about them, we must piece together snapshots
of stars at different life stages 
from birth to death.

The birth,
life, and rebirth of stars is an ongoing process in the
universe. The byproducts of this process include planets
and the elements that make life possible.

THE EAGLE
NEBULA

Stars
form in huge clouds of hydrogen gas. This picture shows
the Eagle nebula, in which stars are now being born. Millions
of years from now the clouds seen here will be gone 
eroded away by radiation and matter emanating from the newborn
stars. Our own Sun probably formed from a similar cloud
about 4.6 billion years ago.